MANAGEMENT OF PASTURES. 69 



it clear that care in choosing the seed and in sowing 

 the crop is of much more importance than in the case 

 of cereals, or of annual forage crops. In many cases, 

 however, as after bush burns, grass is sown down once 

 for all, and, owing to the unploughable nature of the 

 land no further opportunity will ever occur of renew- 

 ing the pasture ; in this case a right choice of grasses 

 becomes by far the most important problem that the land- 

 holder is confronted with. The difficulty of making a right 

 choice of grasses is very great ; of two mixtures one may 

 give much more feed than another, but |owing to the lack of 

 keeping accurate records of the stock carried, definite in- 

 formation for the guidance of other farmers is not available. 

 Even where accurate records are kept the length of time over 

 which the crop remains in the ground makes the information 

 very slowly available. In the cases of cereals, root crops, 

 or ordinary manures, the trials are very simple. The experi- 

 ments are in most cases concluded in a single season, and 

 the product of variety or manurial trials can be accurately 

 weighed. Yet in these cases we have often arrived at no 

 definite conclusion as to what is the best variety of wheat, 

 or oats, or turnips, or what is the best manure to use with 

 these crops, in any particular district. What wonder is it, 

 then, that definite information in the matter of choice of 

 seed and treatment of the land in the case of grasses, is 

 almost entirely lacking. Each district follows some estab- 

 lished custom, and there is little doubt that in many cases 

 the most profitable grass is not used. One of the most 

 valuable lines of experiment that could be embarked upon 

 would be the sowing down of fields in different districts 

 in different mixtures of grasses, and keeping a record of the 

 stock carried by each plot. The plots, of course, would have 

 to be duplicated to avoid experimental error ; each would 

 have to be separately fenced so as to prevent stock from 



